Angewandte
Interdisciplinary Lab
On the occasion of the publication of the book
‘Playing with Ludwig’ by Nikolaus Gansterer and Klaus Speidel, two performative activations are taking place at AIL and Secession
Wien.
How do colours relate to memory? How does
language relate to the world (and vice versa)? Can the invisible, such as thoughts, atmospheres or pain, be grasped through
art?
Artist Nikolaus Gansterer and philosopher Klaus Speidel discuss these and similar questions
in the newly published book Playing with Ludwig, Figures of Thinking, published by Éditions Dilecta Paris. Taking Ludwig Wittgenstein’s
Philosophical Investigations as their starting point, Gansterer and Speidel have developed various works and formats, talking,
drawing, assembling or doing all at the same time. Rather than just presenting results, the book documents the joint working
process in numerous transcripts, which also reflect the genesis of the book itself. The work thus opens with a conversation
between the authors and the book’s designer Grégoire Romanet, where the first graphic ideas are discussed. It ends with the
dialogue ‘How to close a book’, which prepares the final series of images. Exhibition photographs and works from the first
exhibition documenting the research project Figures de pensée at the Centre d’art contemporain Les Tanneries have been annotated,
continued or completed in drawings. Different styles and methodologies, which unfold in the chapters of the book, correspond
to different methods and themes in Wittgenstein’s work. Two additional precise essays by Eric Degoute, director of Les Tanneries,
and Roger Malbert, curator and drawing expert, elaborate on the dynamic relationship between thinking and drawing and reading
as a form of friendship. In the series ‘Philosophical Deviations’, Nikolaus Gansterer draws on various paragraphs of Ludwig
Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, exploring various forms and procedures. Gansterer explains: ‘It’s important to
say that none of these drawings are illustrations. I try to record how the text operates within me, how it influences my ways
of thinking and feeling and then to take this movement as a springboard for drawing. It’s not so much about what is being
said, but how it moves a reader.’
At the centre of the book stand the paragraphs
of the Philosophical Investigations themselves, to which the various works and conversations in the book refer, annotated
in writing and drawing by Klaus Speidel. Memories of Colour, Just imagine a Rod and Now as One Thing, Now as Another are based
on collections of hues, rods, and boxes (respectively). As Speidel, who obtained a PhD in philosophy from Sorbonne University,
explains: ‘In our joint work, I am also interested in exploring the limits of philosophical abstraction. If we fail in our
attempt at artistic concretization, this failure can in itself convey new insights in the sense of what Wittgenstein called
‚going against the frontiers of language’. I believe that art production enables philosophical insights.’ This interference
between philosophy and art can be experienced concretely in the titular series Playing with Ludwig. In this performative experimental
arrangement, two or more people sit opposite each other. Starting from a text, a new language game unfolds with drawings and
objects.
On the occasion of the publication of the book Playing with Ludwig
by Nikolaus Gansterer and Klaus Speidel, two performative activations are planned:
1. Zerlesung und Tischgespräch / Dereading and table talk.
Wed,
31 May 2023, 18:00 (tbc)
AIL, Otto Wagner-Postsparkasse, Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna
Table Talk: Nikolaus Gansterer, Klaus Speidel, Alexander Damianisch, Gerhild Steinbuch (tbc) and further guests
2. Umzeichnung und Tischperformance / Undrawing and table game
Thu,
1 Jun 2023, 19:00 (tbc):
Secession, Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Performance: Gansterer and Speidel invite you to the first Viennese Language Game Lab at the Secession, where they
will work with drawings and objects based on a remark by Ludwig Wittgenstein, so that in the end a temporary installation
is created according to the method of 'Playing with Ludwig'.
Playing
with Ludwig: Figures of Thinking / Jouer avec Ludwig: Figures de pensée,
Nikolaus
Gansterer & Klaus Speidel
Publisher: Éditions Dilecta, Paris
Year 2022
Authors: Nikolaus Gansterer, Klaus Speidel, Eric Degoute, Roger Malbert
Pages: 160
Size: 21 x 28 cm
Language: bilingual
English / French
Graphic design: Gregoire Romanet
ISBN:
978-2-37372-165-2
